Huddie Ledbetter, known as “Lead Belly,” is one of our
country’s most intriguing legends—a folk-blues singer, songwriter, and
guitarist with a violent criminal background.
Quick Facts on Lead
Belly’s Life
Lead Belly was born in Louisiana in 1885 on a plantation,
and his family moved to a farm in Texas when he was five years old. By the age of 16 he was considered a
“drifter,” working in one field after another, and playing his accordion, 6 and
12 string guitar, bass and harmonica in the heart of rich cultural blues music.
From his travels he learned blues, spiritual, cowboy songs, prison hollers,
reels, and folk ballads. By 1917, he was the “lead boy” to Blind Lemon
Jefferson. However, with a hot temper and massive strength, he continually
found himself in Southern prisons. He was found guilty of murder in 1917 and sentenced
to prison in 1918. However, through his persuasive
singing to the prison guards and Governor Pat Morris Neff, he was pardoned and
released in 1925. He was sentenced again in 1930 (this time in Angola State
Prison) for attempted murder. He spent several years behind bars until Lomax sought
him out for recordings for the Library of Congress. Then, between his persuasive music and
recordings, as well as the help of Lomax, the governor of Texas pardoned him
after his minimum sentence.
Lead Belly later moved to New York, working as a chauffeur
for John Lomax, but occasionally performed. The last 15 years of his life, he
found a new audience in the leftist folk community—he befriended many
musicians, such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Similar to Guthrie, Lead
Belly performed for labor unions and political rallies in his later years.
Lead Belly was nicknamed “King of the Twelve-String Guitar,”
because of his high-pitched vocals and powerful, percussive guitar playing. He
recorded for many labels (such as Folkways), and he performed tirelessly (yet
still living in mild poverty).
Shortly after Lead Belly’s death in 1949 (of Lou Gehrig’s
disease), the Weavers sold 2 million copies of their recording of Lead Belly’s
“Goodnight Irene.” Pete Seeger said “it’s one more case of black music being
made famous by white people.” Hence his
fame finally caught up with him when he died.
I particularly liked this image of Lead Belly. It reminded me
of the quote that Professor Dubovsky always reminds us of—when you sing the
word love, you have to mean it. A few classes ago, he described that the singer
who said this (I believe it was Lomax, but I am not entirely sure), would
always stare off into the distance whenever he sung about love. While Lead
Belly’s songs were not typically about love, I suspect that this quote still
applies to him. He was very passionate (and loved) music, as it has given him a
second chance in life. It is likely that his music reminds him of how grateful
and dependent he is on music. http://www.audiofemme.com/flashback-friday-goodnight-irene/
Thoughts About His
Story:
The main idea of Lead Belly’s story that hit me the hardest
is that music changes lives and cleanses the soul. Here is a man who was born
into a sharecropping family and in jail, having been convicted of murder, yet
his and Lomax’s passion for music were able to convince two governors of
Louisiana to set him free with a minimum sentence.
In parallel to Lead Belly, is the nation’s history of social
equality. The first sign of acceptance of African Americans was that American
culture absorbed African American music. Their music was a part of our country
before we let them be, too. White landlords would take nearly all of the
African American shareholder’s crops, yet they would purchase and enjoy their
music. It took a while for us to accept them as well as we had accepted their
music. Music empowered the struggle for equality, and without it, our nation
most likely never would have reached equality.
I researched, and this is Jeter Plantation—the farm that he
grew up on in Louisiana. I believe that this is the house he lived in, and the
large white one far off in the distance is the mansion that the landlord lived
in. The picture really gives me the image of the poor treatment and minimal
respect that Lead Belly received during these times and greatly influenced his
music.
Song Interpretations:
For this week, I focused on “Take This Hammer.” I was able
to really connect this song to the emotions that must have been pounding
through his heart and soul. I found the song to depict his prison life, quite
well.
It was common for
songs, such as “Take This Hammer” to start out as work songs in the
plantations, as African Americans were forced to work there, even nearly a
century after slavery was abolished. Since this song was passed down to Lead Belly
in the prison, it is likely that it originated from the sharecropping life.
They were probably fed up with their work in the fields as sharecroppers and
hoped to seek out a better life. They had more pride than to continue to do all
the work but get hardly nothing to live with.
As for Leadbelly, I feel the song greatly represented his
prison life, and he is upset with the way that he was treated there. His music
has freed him, though, as the Lomax’s have come to salvage his musical talent.
Below, I have described the way that the lines and stanzas correspond to his
prisoner story, as I feel that this is the most prominent correlation between
his life and his music.
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Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Tell him I’m gone
Tell him I’m gone
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The hammer is symbolic of the hard physical labor he would do in the
prison
He tells the audience to give it to the captain to symbolize that the
captain (prison guard) will have to do his own work now, as he has left.
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If he asks you was I runnin’
If he asks you was I runnin’
If he asks you was I runnin’
Tell him I was flyin’
Tell him I was flyin’
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It is likely the captain will ask if Lead Belly ran away, but he did
not. He left with his pride and his magic of music—he was flying with joy
that his music has freed him.
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If he asks you was I laughin’
If he asks you was I laughin’
If he asks you was I laughin’
Tell him I was cryin’
Tell him I was cryin’
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It is likely that the captain will believe that Lead Belly was
laughing at the fact that he basically was excused for murder because of his
music. But he did not laugh. __. He says he was crying to depict these
emotions.
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They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
But I got my pride
Well, I got my pride
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This symbolizes the poor conditions Lead Belly lived with in the
prison. He was innutritious foods, but not only that—the words “feed me”
almost depict that he was treated like a pet, rather than an equal human
being. He is leaving with his pride, as he realizes that he is worth more
than this.
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Here, I feel that the order of
the verses helps tell the story the best. The first stanza must go first to
inform the audience that he was in prison and will be leaving. The last stanza
is a strong way to end the song. Stating that he has his pride shows that he is
leaving the prison just as strong, emotionally, as when he went in. It shows
that he is proud of his music and who he is. The two stanzas belong in the
middle, as I see them more as supporting stanzas. The second shows that his
music freed him, which is why he flew out (free) versus ran out (escaped). This
is important to have right after informing the audience that he is leaving
prison. The third stanza is just as strong as the others, as he shows that he
is still emotional. It is also a good way to tie in the new freedom with his
pride-filled emotions.
Upon reading “Goodnight Irene” after knowing that Lead Belly
was convicted of murder, I came to the conclusion that he murdered Irene (possibly
for not loving him back—who knows-- especially the way he says that he will see
her in his dreams). However, after extensive researching on who Irene really
was, I discovered that some claim that no one knows (but I am sure that some
musical scholars have some hypotheses about it at least). However, Irene
certainly was not the person he killed. (It turned out that he was actually
convicted of stabbing a man to death, and obviously, Irene is not a man.)
As I continued to read about the unknown mystery of Irene, I
grew curious and determined to find at least one hypothesis. Here is the link
to one that I found. I do not necessarily agree with it, as I feel that Irene
was more than just a gambling night—especially considering that the song was
passed down from his uncle, but in case anyone is curious: http://www.paddyg.f9.co.uk/igas/irene.htm
Meanwhile, I was able to find the book The Life and
Legend of Leadbelly online, and it had quite a bit of information. (I am
not sure where the link will take you, but page 52-53 in the book are very
useful: https://books.google.com/books?id=iJhS9BaFFjIC&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q&f=false
.) In the book, I was surprised to learn that the song was passed down, and he
learned it from his uncle. (I thought that he had written the song.) I wonder
what inspired him to revise the song.
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With Lead Belly’s fame with “The Rock Island Line,” I was
surprised to learn that he did not write the song, but heard it from a prison
work gang at Arkansas State Prison (Kelly Pace). He then rearranged it and
later performed/recorded it. It primarily discusses the Rock Island and Pacific
Railroad in Chicago that trails all the way down to New Orleans. New Orleans
has a tollgate that all the trains have to pass through, unless they have
certain items on board. One man passed through the tollgate with pig iron on
board, but lied and said he only had livestock. This way, he could get through
the gate for free.
In Professor Dubovsky’s post, he writes that the English Skiffle
Band figure, Lonnie Donnegan (in the 1950’s) recorded and copyrighted the song
as his own, basically stealing it. While this was wrong, it is important to
note that the first time the song was recorded, in 1934 by Lomax, it had the
original singer—the prisoner from the work yard. But then Lomax recorded it
with other artists, and finally, Lead Belly
recorded it. Before the blink of an eye,
there were at least five artists who had recorded their own version of the
song. Thus, the song was ‘stolen’ and
revised about four or five times before Lonnie Donnegan finally put an end to
the stealing of the song by copyrighting it. In fact, I feel that the song is
most associated with Lomax and Lead Belly, even though Donnegan claimed it as
his own later on.
The one above is recorded in 1944 by Lead Belly. It is
pretty standard—what I had expected.
The recording above is the original in 1934 with Alan Lomax
and Kelly Pace. This version is slower and has a more relaxed feel to it. The
one before this (and most recent versions) have a faster pace, as if the train
is going to come soon, so they need to hurry and finish the song to make the
train on time.
One other thing about this version was that they had
replaced the stanza “A-B-C double X-Y-Z/Cat’s in the cupboard but he cant see
me” for something else (I could not tell what they were saying very well). I
thought it was interesting that this verse somehow got added in at some point
of the song’s trailing from singer to singer. I wonder what it meant and
how/why it was added. –maybe someone in class could answer this question.
I liked this version’s introduction the most because it
helped explain the background of the song. This information is included in my
description of the song before the links to the different versions.
I liked the passion that he had for his music—he is really
into his music and the audience can definitely tell. He is very excited and his
voice changes throughout the song just the perfect way that helps tell the
story of the song even better. However, I feel that he is so excited that it
got too fast. The song is already a pretty quick song, but Donnegan’s speed
took away from the song a little. The passion he had for the song only lasted
for about a minute and a half and then the song was over. I feel that the
audience could have comprehended more of the song and enjoyed it even more if
he had gone just a tad bit slower.
I liked his voice—it was very unique. I am not sure how to
describe it, but the energy just bounced out of the speakers in my computer and
vibrated throughout my entire room. It was great—I loved it.
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“Midnight Special” is a song that Lead Belly picked up while
in prison. The first few sources I found stated that Midnight special refers to
a Midnight Special Passenger Train, with its “ever-loving light.” However,
there was no train that ran at the time the song was written. Therefore, the
song must have been referring to the Southern Pacific’s Golden Gate Limited
train, which ran from Houston to New Orleans.
The train in the song represents the freedom in their hearts
and souls running wild, even though their physical bodies are trapped inside
their jail cells. It runs free, all the way from Texas to Louisiana, which is
where Lead Belly was originally from. It is possible that he may want to return
to his homeland in Louisiana, especially after all that he has been
through.
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I believe that “In the Pines” was to relate to the night of
murdering Will Stafford. He speaks of “black girl,” who is likely the girl that
he was fighting over the night of the murder. The murder also took place in “in
the pines” and it was cold and dark that night, just as the song says “where
the sun never shines.”
The only thing that puzzled me was the last verse before the last chorus repetition.
It speaks of a murder, where a head was found on the road, but the body was
never found. When Lead Belly murdered Will Stafford, he shot him—he did not
decapitate him. I am left to believe that since they do speak of murder of the
girl’s husband (in the video he definitely liked her, so I think it is fair to
assume he was her husband), that this is still what the song refers to.
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Videos
I believe that the video is hard to come by due to the
social context placed on the races. All of the prisoners are African American,
while the scholars (Lomax) and the prison guard are both white and dressed in
nice clothes. It gives the false idea that African Americans are violent (that
is why they are in prison) and poor (in prison, no one is wealthy usually), and
that whites are rich (the nice clothes) and educated (fulfilling careers).
One example is when the guard hands Lead Belly over to the
scholars, he tells them to be careful because this “Nigger” is a real bad one.
He did not say man or prisoner, but he put an unnecessary race on the title.
Furthermore, when the two men are fighting over the woman,
their aggressive behavior could be claimed that it was targeted to mean that
African Americans are aggressive (even though this is false).
If anyone is interested in watching the full movie (2
hours), I have included the link:
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I think it is important to note that the video was from
1935— in the middle of the Great Depression. I feel that this video was sent
out towards everyone in America as a sign for hope. I am assuming that at this
point, Lead Belly was pretty well known, as was his story. It was most likely
meant to be inspiration that although everyone’s lives are tough and
impoverished at the time of viewing the video, life can make a sharp turn at
any point. In Lead Belly’s life, he went from a prisoner to a famous musician
in hardly any time at all—all because Lomax went song collecting and found the
right songster. This could happen to anyone. Nearly everyone’s lives were
impoverished, but the video was to inspire them that their life could turn
around and improve at any point in time.
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Finally, the last question was the most obvious question.
Who was Lead Belly? Overall, my perspective on who Lead Belly was is pretty
simple: he is a hard-working, emotional, and talented musician, whose temper
could get him into trouble, but whose music overpowered any other action he
could ever do. His music not only unlocked him from his jail cell, but opened the
doors to equality in America.
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In my drawing, I chose to draw a Pegasus to depict the power
of music. Music frees the soul, just as it freed Lead Belly from prison. Music
is so powerful that it is almost like magic. Lead Belly was a hardcore
criminal, but the music freed him and cleansed his soul, allowing him to lead a
beautiful, talented life in the end.
Music is also what empowered social equality. America
accepted African American’s music into their culture, but could not accept the
people themselves. Their music stirred the world to realize that African
Americans should be treated equally, just as their music was treated equal
compared to other styles. These thoughts
have opened my mind to just how powerful music is in life, in general---it
soothes pain, celebrates joy, and inspires us to reach our dreams.
Additional References:
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